


afterimage

by stereonights



Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: Angst, Drabbles, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, few happy endings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:40:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23790973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stereonights/pseuds/stereonights
Summary: Everything after, in brief.Drabbles set after the war, with variable amounts of fidelity to canon.
Kudos: 5





	1. toro nagashi

**Author's Note:**

> Heero makes a somber holiday journey.

He only returns once.

The river is as phony as anything else in space, a wide concrete ribbon on the western edge of the colony. It’s a mid-August night, artificially hot, the first summer after the war. The river’s banks are mobbed by families with children.

The lantern boat costs him almost nothing. Its paper is crinkly and white, like a girl’s summer dress.

He scrawls a message — 謝罪— in sloppy kanji on the lantern’s side and sets it adrift. Within moments it collides with another boat, ignites, and collapses on itself. 

The river is too clogged with lanterns.


	2. penmanship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adulthood isn’t what Relena expects.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which I forsake my beloved 1xR in the name of making myself sad.

She is always signing things.

Adolescence flatlines into adulthood, her horizons reduced to desk space and re-election. Her job consists of few victories and a landslide of paperwork. Relena signs treaties, budget reports, receipts at the coffee shop in the spaceport, wedding ring loose around her finger.

She is 25, then 30, and she has almost managed to forget about Heero. 

There are reminders, of course. But not many. 

There are press conferences and sleepless nights and a persistent ache in her hand. Her husband doesn’t call the office anymore. 

When the divorce papers come, she signs those as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In truth, this is probably a bit OOC, but I wanted to take a crack at a more realistic, less idealistic Relena.

**Author's Note:**

> "謝罪" is a formal apology. It has been many years since I made any formal study of the language, so I can only offer my own apologies if I've written anything in error.


End file.
